Same problem here. 10.9.2, also rMBP. I can reproduce the Atom Helpers bouncing to 100% cpu by simplying doing FIle -> Open… – every time i command-tab to the application afterwards spawns another Atom Helper app using 100% of a CPU.

@leedohm I am on a rMBP yep.
Not doing anything special for me, just hacking away on a few files will do but it is especially true if I am, for ex, working on a ui and syntax theme opened in -d mode then it chews battery quite a bit so much actually that I had to switch to sublime… and I don’t wanna do that anymore

Will sometimes be smooth, and sometimes the Atom Helper hits %100 and it crashes to it’s knees… triggers seem to be random… sometimes opening a new pane, sometimes searching in project for file, sometimes just typing… Saving often triggers it too.

I’m not sure if this helps, I was running the spotify plugin, and I enabled the “Show Equalizer” option (although it’s just a looped animation) once I disabled it and restarted atom the cpu went back down to around 5/6% again.

Today however the entire app itself is feeling very slow, 3/4 tabs open, one window and it’s very sluggish copy and pasting small chunks of text. Typing is slow etc. Can’t pin point what cause it. Its seems to slow down the longer I use the app, it is the way it handles history/steps?

I’m able to affect the behavior using the Rdio plugin. A clean startup of Atom with an open file yields normal CPU usage. When I start playing Rdio (and the status bar on Atom starts indicating the paying track), the Atom Helper process runs at around 27%.

If I pause Rdio, Atom Helper spikes to 100%, regardless of whether I start or stop playback again.

If I quit Rdio, Atom Helper drops back down to near-idle usage.

Maybe it has something to do with the library that is being used to monitor the playing status in this case? I’m sure other plugins are using the same thing…